Editor’s Note: Young Teachers Collective welcomes reflections from across the globe that are rooted in local experience. This is second part of Derecho en Toma, Daniel Bergerson’s series about a student movement that is reclaiming the right to education in Chile. An English translation follows the Spanish-language transcription.

Isidora Romero, 26, and Jennifer Gutierrez, 26, played the part of Communist, feminist, vegan teachers in a skit performed for their high school students in Santiago, Chile. That is also their role in real life. In the 1990s, they were among the first to be born during the transition to democracy following Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. In 2006, they were protagonists of the Chilean high school student movement protesting one of the most privatized and segregated school systems in the world. In 2011, they participated as university students in a massive social movement for free higher education and a new constitution.

Now Isidora and Jennifer are bringing the fight back to the schoolhouse, this time as teachers. In the past two years, they have encountered impossible working conditions, strikebreaking and victim-blaming. In spite of this, they are sparking debate on school policies, encouraging students to organize themselves and generally laying the groundwork for a revolution in the high school. Daniel Bergerson, a student teacher and editor of Young Teachers Collective, spoke with Isidora and Jennifer and translated the interview.

Daniel Bergerson: What is it like being a teacher in Chile?

Jennifer Gutierrez: In Chile, teachers are often blamed for why education is how it is, but nobody takes responsibility for what lies behind. I’m being asked to be an excellent teacher, but where are the tools allowing me to account for diversity? Where is the time to plan class activities that cover different learning styles? Where is my contract saying I will not be persecuted for demanding my rights? Educational policies are made in a sphere where teachers have no influence. In Chile, pedagogy is discussed by engineers. They see the teacher as a technician.

Isidora Romero: Like a robot that magically knows each student’s interests, problems, and needs.

DB: How are teachers fighting back?

IR: Last year, teachers in all public schools across the country and some private ones went on strike for two months. It was a long winter.

JG: In that moment, they were basically demanding to improve working conditions. There are teachers who have two hours to plan their 44-hour week. They demanded a change regarding class size. To have 46 students and only two hours of preparation affects your pedagogical practice. They were demanding a salary raise because there are teachers earning about $740 dollars per week. They were demanding to change the teacher evaluation because it was a standardized evaluation made by people who are not pedagogues.

Photo: Daniel Bergerson, 2016.

DB: I heard there is a common understanding between your administrators and older colleagues that the high school does not participate in strikes. How did you challenge this norm?

IR: Last year, the high school effectively had a no-strike policy. It was us who proposed a vote. I remember the staff meeting in which we raised our hands and asked, “Are we going to vote to see whether or not we’ll go on strike?”

JG: It was like, “Hey, dude, are we going to ignore the context beyond our classrooms or what? Something is happening! Are we going to talk about it or act like assholes?” From there the idea surfaced, “Oh, we have to have a conversation and vote.”

IR: The principal, who eventually was fired for malpractice, said, “Okay, let’s vote. Raise your hand if you do want to strike.” I remember her memorizing our faces. We were tied 15 to 15. Then she asked, “Can the administration vote?” I said, “No, the strike is for teachers,” but the older teachers said, “Yes, please, vote.” The principal voted against the strike and said, “With these votes we win. We don’t go on strike.” It was not a vote of teachers when it was a teacher strike.

JG: The excuse was that it’s a great loss for the children when we miss a day of class. Personally, I feel that a child loses more seeing that a teacher does not practice what they preach. I always tell them, “All of the tools that you will have, you must use them to better society.” To have a teacher in class on a day when all of the teachers in Chile are in the street, where is the coherence in the discourse? Sometimes losing a class is not necessarily a loss but a gain when the reasoning behind not having class is explained to the child.

DB: Since you couldn’t participate in the strike, how are you taking action at school?

IR: I’m working with my colleague on the topic of feminist education. When a girl left the school because the other students annoyed her about some nude photos, we asked, “What kind of students are we educating?” They are capable of bothering someone to the point where she has to leave. They do very well on their tests, but they have no emotional intelligence.

JG: There was an implicit expectation to censor the fact. The matter was discussed in a teacher meeting only because one of us raised our hand and said, “Listen, this is happening. Let’s talk about it.”

IR: I offered a class on school violence against women to the teachers. The idea was to leave the story a secret, but as a result of raising my hand, we were able to talk about the issue.

DB: Once you had discussed feminism and human rights in class and staff meetings, how did the rest of the school respond?

IR: My colleagues said to me, “It’s really great for us to talk and have this reflection, but could we try to do it in a less violent way?” I guess talking about things is violent.

JG: [Laughing]. Well, I suppose that I talk a bit violently. My way of saying things is a bit hard-hitting.

IR: Twelfth-grade girls who are not my students came up to me: “Teacher, they told us that you are a feminist. Could you explain to us what that means?” One always looks up to their teacher. You have to take charge of that responsibility.

JG: Students with political interests realize that there are teachers who have the same tendencies, and they ask you, “Teacher, did you once go to the protests?”

“Yes.”

“Did you throw rocks?”

“No, kids.”

For them it is a way to learn that they can do things differently instead of how they’ve been taught. This year the children are going to have more political activity than the past year because we established a bond that is much more strong.

“We are going to win.” Illustration: Martha Aguirre, 2015.

DB: Building on last year’s activism, how are you as young teachers building a culture of struggle in your classrooms and at the school-wide level?

IR: Last year we dared to put issues on the table in a context where we were new, unsettled and without any validation. I couldn’t say with certainty, “I am an excellent teacher and I, in my capacity, believe that the important thing at this moment is to be out in the street.” Now we have demonstrated that we are good teachers, so we carry more weight and can have our voice heard. In all of the meetings, each Monday, we are the ones who raise our hands and fire off comments. I believe that will bear fruit. Things are changing very slowly, but at least we are planting small seeds with the students that will sprout at some moment. They are going to be the revolution in the high school.

JG: I believe that in three more years a student in my advisory will be a leader proposing that the high school students go on strike. The kids are going to be the ones carrying the torch of political protest inside the school because they are children who already have a culture of civic participation and an awareness of their conditions.

Last year we simply questioned. This year is dedicated to transforming. This new generation of teachers—because in one way or another, we are a new generation—is going have more sway than last year. We have more friendships. There are more supportive networks. They will be pushing with us.

I once had a teacher who would say, “La revolución se hace del aula.” The revolution is made in the classroom. Go to the marches, but return to class afterwards because you are educating. It is an idea that I still hold.

Daniel Bergerson is a full-time student teacher in the Barnard Education Program at Columbia University. He plans to teach high school social studies in his hometown of of Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielBergerson and read more on education, history, and labor at The Dandruff Report.